Disordered eating practices in gastrointestinal disorders: What do we know?

Dietary-controlled gastrointestinal disorders, e.g. Coeliac Disease, Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome, are managed by life-long, therapeutic diets. The need for daily, dietary management may put individuals at risk for disordered eating practices. Our literature review assessed the relationship between disordered eating and dietary-controlled gastrointestinal disorders. There is a dearth of investigations in this area but a higher prevalence of disordered eating practices such skipping meals, binge eating and fasting was found in individuals with gastrointestinal disease than in general population. Disordered eating behaviours were associated with the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms, psychological distress and both good and poor dietary self-management. We recognise that the majority of individuals with dietary-controlled gastrointestinal disorders will not develop disordered eating patterns. However, it is important to understand the nature of disordered eating practices within this patient group, how they may relate to dietary self-care and how they may be detected in clinical practice.